September 2007
For Advent - Christmas - Epiphany:
as an entry point for member mission into the life of your congregation,
start a pilot group discerning their daily missions
using the worksheets, glance chart, road map, and examples
at Basic Tools 3, 3A, 3B, 3C, and 3D on the website’s Basic Tools menu.
This month
STORIES
• The men cook breakfast, then share
• Immigration and the New Sanctuary Movement
• Praying for each other’s missions until we meet again
RESOURCES
• “Does Religion Cause Violence? Behind the common question lies a morass of unclear thinking”
• Entry points
• “Fair Trade” and 12 ways to shop it
• More Basic Tools on the website
• “Trade Justice”
FOR MEDITATION
• An alternate form of the Jesus prayer
CORRECTION
• Author of “I am a Christian”
STORIES
The men cook breakfast, then share
After eating at a monthly “Men’s Prayer Breakfast,” each person says something about what they do between Sundays. Bill Yon, the convener of the group, finds that, “As the month’s go by, the men make significant disclosures. At the normal comings and goings on Sunday mornings, nobody would ever say anything about what shapes the life in which they live – the arena in which they live out whatever their understanding of discipleship is.” He began the first session saying: “A lot of us come to church with the attitude that we get through the week in order to have a good time on Sunday. It’s really the other way around. Sunday is for the sake of the rest of the week so let’s talk about what goes on during the rest of the week.” Bill’s role is to prevent the exchange from becoming a “bull session” and to bring it back to each person reporting out of his own life experience. He comments, “No one argues with another person’s experience.”
Meetings last about an hour and a half including breakfast; are held in the Parish Hall; and the men take turns cooking. Prayer comes near the end and is led by Bill – sometimes the General Thanksgiving from the Prayer Book, sometimes a prayer based on issues and relationships that have been mentioned. At the end of each session, Bill says, “We’ll keep doing this as long as somebody wants to cook breakfast. Who wants to cook breakfast next time?” Sometimes response is slow but they have not missed a month since they started over a year and a half ago – even during the summer. The average group is fifteen – has been as high as twenty-two and as low as five. Over the last year about fifty-two men have participated. At the church, St. Francis of Assisi, in Indian Springs, AL, congregations average about 150 each Sunday.
Contact: Bill Yon at Nandjedi@aol.com or 205-678-9455.
Immigration and the New Sanctuary Movement
As a nation, we are seeking ways to cope with illegal immigration. As we do, how we treat illegal immigrants themselves will concern Christians. Here is a story we regret to hear.
In February of this year, the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, WA took into custody fifty-one illegal immigrants working at the UPS facility in Auburn, WA. Erika, a young mother who was nursing her four-month old baby, was among the fifty-one. She and several other women were locked in a van with no ventilation. One woman was sick and vomited until she passed out. The other women banged on the window trying to attract attention. It was a half hour before any response came. Once in the detention center, a pancake and a hamburger were the only daily food supplied. Other food could be purchased. A package of dehydrated, instant refried beans cost $4.00. While detained, Erika developed a breast infection and was given something to dry up her breast milk. After a week, she was released on bond.
Erika’s story and other stories of hardships suffered both by those picked up and by their children left without parents have led to the New Sanctuary Movement. Christian participants include The Church Council of Greater Seattle which has issued the “The New Sanctuary Movement:
Statement of Support and Involvement.” For a copy, write to the Council at 4 Nickerson #300, Seattle 98109 or mramos@thechurchcouncil.org. The practice of sanctuary – of churches providing a safe place for people seeking a trial – goes back to Numbers 35:11-15.
Saint Matthew’s / San Mateo in Auburn, WA participates in the movement. For more information on the movement and a congregation’s role in it, contact Dianne Aid at 123 L Street NE, Auburn, WA 98002; 206-579-3011; sanmateo921@yahoo.com.
Praying for each other’s missions until we meet again
A member mission support group meets regularly using the Oral Bible reflection method (http://membermission.org/basictools18new.htm) to meditate on the next Sunday’s Gospel reading. As they end, each describes what they want to be prayed for by the rest until they meet again. The list is sent by email, the Post Office, or by hand to each member. The next session begins with each sharing what happened in the area of their prayer request. Here is a recent list – with the names changed, of course.
David: To help more in the fields in which God has gifted him; to volunteer more.
Ward: Not setting goals he has to reach. To do what he can do and be who he can be.
Cathy: Not setting goals too high. Try to be more considerate to other people.
Sara: Ask God to show where she can be more generous and share her possessions with others.
Sam: Discernment of stewardship of material and spiritual resources.
Jack: To accept God's will for him.
Amos: To be on guard against temptations during period of change.
RESOURCES
“Does Religion Cause Violence? Behind the common question lies a morass of unclear thinking” writes William T. Cavanaugh, Associate Professor of Theology, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN in the Harvard Divinity Bulletin of Spring/Summer 2007. In two steps, he challenges the conventional wisdom that religion that Christianity, Islam, and other faiths are more inclined toward violence than “secular” ideologies and institutions. First, he calls the division between the “religious” and the “secular” an “arbitrary and incoherent division” (p. 25).. For him, this division is a product of the Enlightenment that separated “church” and “state.” To illustrate, he cites Martin Marty who sees five characteristics of “religion” that apply just as well to “politics”: focusing on an ultimate concern; building community; appeal to myth and symbol; using rites and ceremonies; and requiring certain behavior (p. 27). Second, Cavanaugh believes the West finds this separation between “religious” and “secular” to be “comforting and ideologically useful” (p.25). It creates a blind spot to the violence of the secular nation-state. “We like to believe that the liberal state arose to make peace between warring religious factions. Today, the Western liberal state is charged with the burden of creating peace in the face of the cruel religious fanaticism of the Muslim world. The myth of religious violence promotes a dichotomy between us in the secular West who are rational and peacemaking, and them, the hordes of violent religious fanatics in the Muslim world. Their violence is religious, and therefore irrational and divisive. Our violence, on the other hand, is rational, peacemaking, and necessary. Regrettably, we find ourselves forced to bomb them into the higher rationality” (p.25). Secure copies from Harvard Divinity Bulletin, 45 Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138; 617-496-9147; http://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/bulletin_mag/
Entry points are low key activities that begin to integrate member mission into a congregation’s life. They can range from a member’s write-up of one of their daily missions being a regular part of every church newsletter; to a pilot group working through the worksheets for each mission field (see membermission.org > Making the Vision Work > Basic Tools 3, 3A, 3B, 3C, and 3D); to signs on the inside of every exit door or at the exit from the parking area that read “You are now entering the mission field.” For fifty-four more such ideas, go to http://www.membermission.org/basictools17.htm. You don’t have to start with rewriting the church’s mission statement around member mission – a cumbersome process in many congregations.
“Fair Trade” and 12 ways to shop it are part of Co-op America’s suggestions for “economic action to create a just global economy for farmers and artisans” at http://www.coopamerica.org/programs/fairtrade/whattoknow/12waystoshopfairtrade.cfm. Browse the whole website at www.coopamerica.org.
More Basic Tools on the website: Basic Tools 3C – Your Daily Missions at a Glance and Basic Tools 3D – Developing Your Personal Road Map help you to condense your worksheets of Basic Tools 3B and to see them on single pages. On the website, find them at Basic Tools on the Making the Vision Work menu.
“Trade Justice” is the theme of the May 2007 Sojourners Magazine. For how “free trade” policies forced on sub-Sahara African countries can impoverish them; the human cost of global markets; media hype for “free trade”; the perils and promise of international trade; and what the individual can do go to http://sojo.org/index.cfm?action=magazine.contents&issue=Soj0705 .
FOR MEDITATION
Some are finding power in this alternate form of the Jesus prayer prayed on the breath – “breath” and “spirit” are often synonymous in the biblical languages.
Jesus Christ (inhale)
Son of God (exhale)
Walk with me (inhale)
Your brother / sister (exhale)
Vary or add: “Walk with (any community you are part of)”; “Your (brothers / sisters, etc. as appropriate)”.
A CORRECTION
The “I am a Christian” poem from the last newsletter was wrongly attributed to Maya Angelou. It was written in 1988 by Carol Winner under the title “When I Say, ‘I am a Christian’” and first published the Assemblies of God periodical, Hi-Call Gospel Magazine. Once on the internet, it acquired incorrect attributions and its verses were rearranged. For the original version, go to http://www.snopes.com/glurge/christian.asp. [Thanks to Christy Trudo for spotting this error.]
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